UK Travel Planning

Liverpool Travel Guide for First-Time Visitors: Beatles, Football and Top Things To Do

• Tracy Collins • Episode 178

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In Episode 178 of the UK Travel Planning Podcast, Tracy and Doug take you to Liverpool, the vibrant northern city famous for music, football and maritime history. 

Discover must-see Beatles landmarks, the Royal Albert Dock, St George’s Hall and more, with insider tips on where to stay, eat and explore. You will hear practical advice on getting there by train, getting around on foot and Merseyrail, and how to book unmissable Beatles experiences such as the Magical Mystery Tour. Football fans will love Doug’s Anfield stadium insights. Tune in for expert recommendations and inspiration to add Liverpool to your UK itinerary.

📝 Show Notes - Episode 178

🎧 Listen to next

  • Episode #29: Chat with Ken Lambert – Beatles fan + owner of George Harrison’s childhood home
  • Episode #98 From Liverpool to London & Beyond – UK Trip Report with Vernetta and Therron
  • Episode #128 – Explore North Wales & Beyond: Customised Cruise Shore Excursions with John Hadwin

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SPEAKER_02:

Love music, history or football? Then you'll love Liverpool. In this episode, we're sharing everything you need to know to plan a visit to this lively northern city, from musty beetles, sites, and waterfront landmarks to our favourite local spots to eat, stay and explore.

SPEAKER_00:

Let's head to Liverpool. Welcome to the UK Travel Planning Podcast. Your host is the founder of the UK travel planning website, Tracy Collins. Each week, Tracy shares destination guides, travel tips and itinerary ideas, as well as interviews with a variety of guests who share their knowledge and experience of UK travel to help you plan your perfect UK vacation. Join us as we explore the UK from cosmopolitan cities to quaint villages, from historic castles to beautiful islands, and from the picturesque countryside to seaside towns.

SPEAKER_02:

Hi everyone, and welcome to this week's episode of the UK Travel Planel Podcast. Now, this week we are heading to Liverpool, a northern city famous for music, of course, the Beatles, maritime history, football, and of course, it's very friendly northern people. I'm a northerner and I can attest to that.

SPEAKER_01:

And the best football team in the world.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, Doug is here as well because we can't do an episode about Liverpool without Doug being here to talk all about his favourite football team.

SPEAKER_01:

Not just my favourite, the most successful British football team ever.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. Well, if you're still listening after that, we're gonna chat all about Liverpool, look at the top sites. Uh obviously, we're gonna talk about the Beatles, we're gonna talk about where to stay, some of the places to eat, um, basically how to get there.

SPEAKER_01:

How to get there. There's a lot more to Liverpool than just football, I have to say.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, absolutely. And we do really want to encourage you to include it in um if you're doing a uh train trip around the UK. In fact, my best of Britain two-week itinerary by train, Liverpool is included in that as well. Yeah, um, and it's a great destination if you're doing a road trip around the UK as well.

SPEAKER_01:

It is. It's also a gateway if you want to go across to Ireland as well.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. And also um it's great, it's actually doable as a day trip from London, but we will talk about that in a bit as well. But as you can hear, Doug's here. Hello. And Doug was actually in Liverpool not very long ago.

SPEAKER_01:

I was uh a few weeks ago, actually. Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so he's got some very recent uh stay in uh time in Liverpool. Uh it's a destination that we've both visited numerous times. Um I do enjoy Beatles' music and uh music's music. I do enjoy Beatles' music, um, and we've had some really good stays and some really fun times in Liverpool, haven't we?

SPEAKER_01:

I have and I enjoy visiting there. The the people are lovely.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

People are great.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, so let's talk a little bit about um getting around. First of all, when you arrive in Liverpool, like Liverpool is a very it's a walkable city.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it is the main train station, Liverpool Lime Street, which is in the middle of the city.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and uh but it's walkable from the from the train stations.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh yes, very easy.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh there are ferries, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

The famous River Mersey runs through the middle of Liverpool. On one side you've got Liverpool, on the other side we've got Birkin Ed. So it's very regular ferries across the Mersey as well.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, well, there's a famous song there. I'm not gonna sing it because ferry across the Mersey. I'm sure most of you can Jerry Morton and Placemakers. Yeah, you'll you'll know that song. Um, there's also hop and hot hop on and hop off buses that you can catch to get around, and there's our favourite magical mystery to it, but I'm gonna talk a bit more about it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so also we're getting around Liverpool. The Mersey rail, which is the local um rail network, is has great coverage as well.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, brilliant. So it's an easy city to get around, basically. It is, um, especially the centre. We tend to stay in the very centre of Liverpool.

SPEAKER_01:

I didn't on my last visit.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, well, we I said we so where did you stay in your last visit?

SPEAKER_01:

I managed to catch the bus away from Liverpool uh Lime Street Station. I went to Anfield for a stadium tour. Oh, Liverpool Football Club.

SPEAKER_02:

But you didn't stay at Anfield, did you?

SPEAKER_01:

No, no, no, no. I was staying in London.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, exactly. So you did on a day trip. But when we stay in London, uh when we stay in Liverpool, we usually stay in the centre.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, we do.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about uh the top sites and things to do in Liverpool. Now I will mention that on the website I have got numerous guides to Liverpool. I've got a Liverpool travel guide, I've got a guide to the top things to do and see in Liverpool. I've also got two Beatles uh articles as well, an itinerary and top uh top things to do in Liverpool for Beatles fans. I've got an article about where to stay in Liverpool, so there's lots of stuff on the website, and I would ask you please, please, please, if you enjoy this podcast, just to go on over and have a look on the website, have a look at a bit more in depth at some of those articles. It does help us to keep the podcast going, supporting us looking at the website. And there's a host there's just a massive amount of information on the website.

SPEAKER_01:

There is, yeah. It's very in depth.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so we really appreciate your support with that. Definitely. Um, right. So should we start with music and the beatles?

SPEAKER_01:

Because we could, or I could start with how to get to Liverpool if you're coming in by train.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, well, if you want to do that, go for it.

SPEAKER_01:

It seems logical order, really.

SPEAKER_02:

That's all right, you do that.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, so I what I did probably a good way to to talk about this is I took the day trip from London. I travelled upon the West Coast main line from London, Houston. I travelled with the Avanti West Coast train service. I took the fastest train, which is two hours twenty minutes, and what a lovely journey it was too. I really, really enjoyed that. The day was bright, lovely. So when you arrive into Liverpool, that main train station is Liverpool Lime Street, and from there, as I said, you can take the Mersey Rail. Great coverage, you can walk into the city. There's also a left luggage at Liverpool Lime Street, should you need it. If you're just spending the day there, I'll just have a small backpack, so I didn't need it, but it's you can't miss it. It's a terminal station, it's right in front of you. Um, from Liverpool itself, you've got um direct train services from London, Manchester, Birmingham, across the other side of the country as well. You've got Norwich and Nottingham, and just below Liverpool you've got Chester as well. So from where Liverpool is situated, and in Lancashire on the left hand side of the UK, um you've got easy access to North Wales in two hours, two and a half hours, you can be in the Lake District, and then just over three and a half hours you can be in Edinburgh itself. So that's just a an overview of Liverpool.

SPEAKER_02:

I honestly didn't know you could get from Norwich to Liverpool.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, you could say direct train service across the country. I have done that. I've done that when I've done it.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, well, I didn't know that. See, I learned things as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, so it's easy to get to Liverpool, and we actually have got an article about how to get from London to Liverpool on a day trip if you want to do it on a day trip. We do encourage you to leave London and not just stay in London if you're gonna be visiting the UK and have maybe you know a week or or ten days to at least do a couple of day trips and certainly consider Liverpool.

SPEAKER_01:

That is actually you mentioned that train journey from Norwich to uh Liverpool, you come straight across the Hope Valley, it's absolutely lovely. I really enjoyed that.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh well, I might have to add that into uh an itinerary in the future, but anyway, let's go back to Liverpool the Beatles. Um, because uh we know we've I've done so many trip reports with uh with many podcast listeners who absolutely have to go to Liverpool because they're Beatles fans. And we the first time that we went with kind of Beatles focus was probably maybe about five years ago, I think. Um and we wanted to kind of do experience kind of the just to learn a bit more about the the history of Beatles in Liverpool, because obviously that's where they're from, John Lennon, George Harrison, and the story behind some of the songs, yeah. Paul McCartney, yes, and a lot of the places that that uh you know mentioned Wingro Star as well. So obviously they're all from that area, they grew up together and they practiced in each other's homes. Yeah, so that was something I was really interested to see about as well. Um, so let's talk about some of the Beatles things that you can do. The first thing on my list is the magical mystery tour, yes, and we thoroughly enjoy that.

SPEAKER_01:

It's fun, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Whether even uh if you're only a sort of half a Beatles fan, if such a thing that exists, it's actually great fun.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, it's fantastic fun. So the magical mystery is a bus tour, it's a coach tour. Um, you it's not a hop on or hop off. You go on the coach and you're taken around by a tour guide, you do get off and have a look at the different places, and you can have your photo opportunities at you know at Strawberry Fields at um at different homes as well. You can get off and have a look. So you do all that and you kind of learn the history of like where they met and how they you know where they used to practice, and just like things like Eleanor Rigby, like the Penny Lane, all the you just kind of learn all that, but it's so much fun. And it was actually um my second cousin that had gone on, Kevin Apollin, who came on and talked about the Portsmouth, they did the Portsmouth episode because they lived down that way, and they had done it and they said it was so much fun. Um, and I don't particularly like singing in public, I'm not the best singer in the world, but honestly, it was in everybody singing the songs and the music was going in the bus. Um, only thing I'd say is if you want to do that, and I really would recommend it, is that you do book ahead for that um because it but it we both thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_01:

We really did, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, and other terms, and other Beatles uh things to do, you've got the Beatles story, which is a bit of like a museum all about the Beatles. You can go and get your picture at the Beatles Statue, um, which is I mean, we have so many photos there. Um, there's obviously the Cavern Club, yeah, yeah, that's right on Matthew Street.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, the the Liver Building, these the Beetle statues right in front of that, the famous live building with the uh live mythical live birds on top.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah, they've got names, haven't they? You just found that out this morning.

SPEAKER_01:

I did.

SPEAKER_02:

I can't remember what they were.

SPEAKER_01:

No, Bertie was one of the things. Oh, right, okay.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, anyway, the live birds have got names.

SPEAKER_01:

Bertie and Brend or something.

SPEAKER_02:

Which Doug was amazed to find out about as well.

SPEAKER_01:

I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, so yeah, go and have your photo. Uh it's obviously free to get take a picture taking the Beatles statue, go at the Beatles story, um, take the magical mystery tour, go and see the home. So you can go and see Mendips where uh John Lennon uh grew up, which is his Aunt Mimi's home. You can go to 24thland Road, which is where uh Paul McCartney grew up. They both belong to the National Trust now, so if you want to get tickets for that, you'll have to go through the National Trust. I will put a link in the show notes, but to buy the tickets for that, but you can spend an entire day, an entire day kind of playing homage to the Beatles.

SPEAKER_01:

You really can. You really can. I mean uh that Matthew Matthew Street where the cabin club is. I spent hours walking up and down that street because every time I walked up and down, they seen it from a different perspective. I just kept missing things. This was a few weeks ago.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01:

So I walked up and I got my photo with with Silla Black and then John Lennon. Yeah, the statues, by the way, not yeah, not the real people. Um, then you find another shop that you missed. How many times if anybody's been watching me walking up and down that street how many times? I don't know what they would have thought.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, you took lots of video and lots of photos, that's useful for YouTube. Um, but uh we actually went to Liverpool. Uh the last time we went together was a couple of years ago when we actually went to a wedding, uh, which is at the beginning of January, and we went to the Cavern Club, so we stayed around the corner in the Hard Nights uh Hard Nights Hard Days Night Hard Days Night Hotel, which is literally around the corner, which is where we stay, and it's that's again lots of Beatles memorabilia. Yeah, it's a fabulous place to stay. Literally around the corner at the Cabin Club. We had a fantastic night in the Cavern Club, didn't we?

SPEAKER_01:

And that's one of the perfect examples. What I said every time I walked up, because above the um Hard Days Night, on the corners, you've got Ringer, then you've got Paul, and he's corner tiny little statues, but it's way off street level. I had to cross the road because it was the old I'm walking up the street, and I see somebody else looking up, and then somebody else stopped to look at what they were looking at. And so everybody's taking photos of these little statues on the wall in the corners.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, I don't know. That's that's really cool as well. Um, and before that, I think were there at Christmas because there's lots of Christmas decorations as well. So um, and then in the summer, we so we've been definitely been at Liverpool plenty of times now. Um also Royal Albert Doc was somewhere that we used to when we lived in the UK. Um, we used to go a lot. Uh nice cafes there, nice restaurants, and have a walk around. Um, now that whole area used to be a UNESCO World Heritage site. Unfortunately, it it was it lost that status in 2021, um, which has been quite controversial. Lots of developments in the area, which is what they said it had impacted the historical cultural.

SPEAKER_01:

That's right. But there's still there's still plenty of uh statues and plaques to sort of celebrate Liverpool's long history.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, the maritime history. So there's a lot of history, maritime history around that area, obviously Liverpool. So um there's some museums you can go to. There's a maritime museum, there's a museum of Liverpool, there's the Tate Liverpool which went into that you weren't as keen on.

SPEAKER_01:

No, no, I was not um not particularly a big fan of that, but it's not my scene. Yeah, art, yeah. So that's just ranked them into the Tate Liverpool. In all honesty, it's wasted on me because I don't see what others see. I think.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so uh anyway, so there's plenty of museums that you can learn about the history. Obviously, the Maritime Museum, say the Museum of Liverpool, you can go in and explore.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and more recent history. I went with your brother, we went to the Western Approaches uh museum, which was absolutely fascinating. The Western Approaches is all about the Second World War, the Atlantic convoys.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah. I remember when you went a couple of years ago that you did that. You you guys went to see that. So there's plenty of if you're interested in museums, there's plenty of museums. Interested in the Beatles, plenty of Beatles history, certainly lots of Beatles history at sea. Terms of um history and architecture. Um, there's Liverpool Cathedral, which is the largest Anglican cathedral in Britain.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I believe it is.

SPEAKER_02:

Um you've been in that?

SPEAKER_01:

I have.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Um, the St George's Hall, which is, I think, where our friends got married.

SPEAKER_01:

That's right. And that's literally across the road from Liverpool Lion Street and the gardens behind it are lovely as well.

SPEAKER_02:

So, yeah, there's some you know great neighbourhoods to visit, like was mentioned, Albert Dock, there's a Baltic Triangle where you'll find street art, bars, and lots of um, you know, uh food um and restaurants places to eat there, markets, that's a popular area.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, and the uh again back to the transport links across between St. George's Hall and the Liverpool Arnold Street, there's a bus station there as well. So if you don't want to use the um um train network, you've got a good bus network as well. It could take you out direct to the airport from there as well, the John Lennon Airport, named after John Lennon.

SPEAKER_02:

Obviously.

SPEAKER_01:

Um so yeah, the transport links around Liverpool are actually pretty good, to be fair.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and um, I know that we've we've got friends that have been in taking lots of pictures of the different street art. We've taken lots of pictures of the different there's lots of statues around. Uh I say we mentioned Silla Black, John Lennon. There's lots of statues that you can get your pictures with.

SPEAKER_01:

Around the Albert Dock area and all that front area there, there's quite a few different statues.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, absolutely. So it's a lovely area to go and visit. Lovely to go and sit in a cafe and enjoy a you know a drink and just in in enjoying the kind of uh atmosphere. I think Liverpool's also got a great atmosphere.

SPEAKER_01:

I did find somewhere that did a very nice Victoria's Sponge. Of course. So that's me.

SPEAKER_02:

Now let's talk about a little bit about so when we go to Liverpool, there's we always go but for two things. I guess we kind of go just the history and the Beatles stuff and all that sort of stuff. But Doug is a massive Liverpool perhaps.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, I've a mentioned that.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I haven't mentioned that. Oh, right. So we always end up in the Liverpool shop.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, there's multiple ones, there's quite a few of them.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, I just think of that very big one in that square.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. That's the one that was. Near the radio tower, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Right, okay. So talk a little bit about your last trip because you specifically went for the football.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, I did I booked myself a stadium tour because, as much as a Liverpool fan, I have been for many, many, many, many years, 50 years or more. I had never been on a ground tour to Anfield. So I rectified that and I had the most fantastic day. I caught the bus from like I said, the bus station across the road from the station takes about 20 minutes. Walk to the ground, book the tour in advance. Marvellous takes two hours, then obviously lots of sta uh photos and videos, and then did you cry?

SPEAKER_02:

Did you cry when you walked onto the pitch?

SPEAKER_01:

You're not allowed to walk on the pitch. All right, that is hallowed ground.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

I did get a bit emotional when they uh I'm getting emotional now.

SPEAKER_02:

You're getting emotional now, it's really strange.

SPEAKER_01:

When the play you'll never walk alone.

SPEAKER_02:

Right, okay. It's getting a bit teary. You can't see this, but it's actually a bit teary, so there it shows you. So if you're a football fan, passionate fan. Um, well, and obviously go into book to see the the state any stadium trail. There are other stadium chores that you hear different stadiums.

SPEAKER_01:

There is, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Book it through Yeah, well, we we will put links into um some of the stadium chairs that you can book. Obviously, Doug tends to not want to go to other places.

SPEAKER_01:

No, I am I am told the Emirates Stadium Faster Football Club in London is particularly one of the good ones to visit. Um, also in Liverpool, I should also mention I have to because there is another football team in Liverpool. There's more than two, obviously, there's other ones, but the big other big team is Everton, who have a new football ground. And I did see the ground, it looks very impressive. It's called the Hill Dickinson Stadium, named after a Liverpool law firm, but that looks very impressive as well. I know there's plenty of passionate Everton fans as well.

SPEAKER_02:

So there's lots of potential things that you can include in a visit to Liverpool.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, so if you're gonna go out, you can as I mentioned you can do it on a day trip from London. But if you want to stay there, and I would recommend if you're gonna go to the Cavern Club that you need to stay. Yeah, um, and our favourite place to stay in the centre of Everpool is the Hard Days Night. Get it right, this time Hard Days Night Hotel.

SPEAKER_01:

I did actually have a walk in there as well because you walk in and it just continues that massive, massive Beatles tone. They're playing music as you walk through. There's memorabilia all around the lobby area. When we stay there, it's each room's different.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, yes, they all had different uh, I think different themes and different, yeah, different um photos, and obviously different, yeah, different themes in them, which is which is really good.

SPEAKER_01:

It's worse stepping into the lobby just as a Beatles.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and it's literally around the corner from the Cavern Club as well. So you can stay at the Cavern Club early hours and then kind of go back to your hotel. And um, so if you're a Beatles fan, I would recommend that. The other option actually is um if you listen to episode 29 of the podcast to um Ken Lambert, Ken Lambert actually purchased the childhood childhood home of George Harrison and Upton Green. And we've had a number of, again, number of people actually who've sent me emails and come on the podcast and said that they have actually booked to stay at Upton Green because they are the husbands or family member as a massive fan of the Beatles, and they said how magical it is to actually stay in and know. And and I know that um Ken shares photos of the Beatles in the rooms, um, downstairs practicing. Uh, you know, it must be absolutely magical to imagine that the Beatles were in that room practice, and I know he's decorated it kind of in sympathetic to exactly how it was when George grew up there. Um, and we can we've got a booked uh a link to book that as well. So I'd really appreciate it if you do go into the show notes um because you can email um Ken and organise to to reserve a stay in their Airbnb. It's slightly out of the centre of Liverpool. Um, but honestly, if you're a Beatles fan, what better way to kind of pay homage to the to the fan for by staying in one of their childhood homes and being able to imagine what it was like when those guys were coming up with their fabulous songs?

SPEAKER_01:

It'd be a must-say if you're an avid fan, you really would want to see that, wouldn't you?

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely. So, I mean, there's just so much to do and see in Liverpool. There's lots of fantastic restaurants. We have friends that go and love the Mowgli restaurant. We actually haven't tried it in Liverpool, but uh, we have friends that go up to Liverpool to enjoy it, and that's like Indian street food, and that's very, very popular. Um, but again, you've got lots of options for cafes, restaurants, there's some you know, really excellent choices in Liverpool. Um, I'm trying to think of anything else that we need because I really want to give you a taste in this episode. I really would like to go have a look at the articles where you've got more details about the things to do and see, but you can easily spend a couple of days in Liverpool.

SPEAKER_01:

You really can. And I mentioned it already. I love the people from Liverpool, I love the accent, I love the characters because they are such passionate people.

SPEAKER_02:

I have to say as well, it's really funny. So when I was at school, um, so I I grew up in Southern Africa, or part between the northeast, Northumberland, and Southern Africa, and I had a my best friend was actually from Liverpool, and we we when we finished school, we flew back and she went to stay with her family. I went to stay with my family in the northeast. So she came up to stay with me for a few days, had no understanding whatsoever, no clue what my grandfather was saying. He had a very, very strong Geordie accent. It was really funny, and then I went to stay with her in Liverpool and we went into Birkenhead for the day. And I remember this cafe, and um not having a clue, not having a clue when I was asked if I wanted a coke. Do you want a coke? I can't even pronounce it properly, so so I shall apologize to any anybody from Liverpool, but I just couldn't understand. So she was asking if I wanted a coke. So it just shows you, even even us Brits going from one region to the other can't necessarily understand the accent.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, because there's so many regional accents.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, absolutely. But it always sticks in my memory because it was so funny. My friend couldn't understand my granddad, and I was really struggling struggling to understand in this cafe what this this poor waitress was asking if I wanted to order. Um, but it's really funny. So, yes, you will hear the accent is very different. It is, it's strong if you're gonna be yeah, in in Liverpool, you'll hear a defin definite if you're going from London up to Liverpool, you're gonna hear a very different accent. Um, so bear that in mind, and that's all part of the I don't know, the magic of visiting.

SPEAKER_01:

I think so. I think it's a magical part to visiting the UK full style.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely, and going to the north, go and go and visit the north as well. Um, so that's good. We actually have also, if you're gonna be in London and you're a Beatles fan, we actually do also have an article all about um things to do in London for Beatles fans as well. That's a very popular article because there's some uh some good uh walks that you can do, some great sites that you can visit. Actually, you just went to the Beatles shop in London.

SPEAKER_01:

I went to the Beatles Shop uh near Maryland.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh Marlebone and right next door to the Sherlock Holmes Museum. Which you always go to anyway. Big fan of Sherlock Holmes is dug.

SPEAKER_02:

But yeah, so there's so much to do in a sea in Liverpool, so definitely worth uh visiting. So I'm just thinking of tips that we could kind of share with you if you're considering a visit. So the first thing I would say is be careful when you visit if you're gonna go and there's a football match on, because it'll be busy.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, as I've already said, that there's multiple sports and football teams and other sports, rugby league teams as well nearby. Um, they are avid sports fans. So when the sports fixtures are on, yes, it will be busy.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it does get busy, and the trains can get busy until the time. So that's worth thinking about as well, and also booking accommodation will be more difficult. So it is worth planning not to go on a Saturday or Sunday or checking in case there's a midweek fixture.

SPEAKER_01:

That's right. It's also um uh Liverpool University as well. So at certain times of year and certain days, accommodation can be uh in short supply as well, so it can get very busy then.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and I do I always kind of stress this with the trains as well, because I do I know we had feedback from a few people who visit this summer and travelled on Saturdays, and they didn't realise that not there was any trouble on the trains, I should just say no problem was just fans on the trains, but it was very, very, very busy. So again, it kind of underlines the need to book a seat.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, book a seat, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Um so the other thing, I guess, and also just mention what we're talking about train stations, and there's more than the one, isn't there? Because you get into Liverpool Lime Street, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

That's the main station. As I say, Mersey Rail have multiple stations, but Liverpool Central as well, if you go into um you know other uh locations as well, it's not just Liverpool Line Street, that's just that's just the main station. But uh James Street, for example, for the Western approaches, and that's closer to the Elbert Docks as well.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

But the you know, there's good maps out there, they use National Rail Inquiries because Merserville comes under that as well. So all the information will be on the website, National Rail Inquiries.

SPEAKER_02:

And also just in Liverpool is a great, also great destination that you can get to other places easily from. So it's very easy if you want to go to Chester, to North Wales, the Lake District.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, just two and a half hours. You can be up uh towards the lake district, it's not direct service because obviously you've got to change it. Wigan or Ox and Home uh for Windermere, but yeah, it it's that gateway. I mean, you you're not far from heading across you know the into um towards Manchester as well, you know. Then you've got obviously links across towards the Penn Islands as well.

SPEAKER_02:

So, and I know we've done we've actually helped lots of people with uh train itinerary. So we have got a best of Britain by uh by by rail, two-week itinerary, which we wrote a few years ago, which is incredibly popular, and we've had a lot of people who've actually done that itinerary, yeah. Um, and you've got some different options with that. We've we've put kind of either or you can do either or um, and that kind of will take you on a kind of circuit around, and you in that itinerary you get to go to England, Wales, and Scotland to start in London, end back in London. But also, you've been helping a lot of people through the itinerary consults, particularly with train itineries.

SPEAKER_01:

That's right, yeah. The people think, oh, it's a staff question, I don't know how to do this. And I explain and simplify things on consults, and the feedback we've had is you've made that so much easier. More you put it in perspective, you told us what is achievable, what's not achievable. I've explained tickets, I've explained passes. So, yes, we simplify it and I do a specific uh train itinerary uh train consult as well.

SPEAKER_02:

Don't do other options, specific just for trains, yeah, if that's what you want.

SPEAKER_01:

Which is the feedback again, it makes a big difference.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely, and also if you actually want a bespoke itinerary, as in Doug will design the train itinerary for you. Um, you can actually from January as well chat to Doug about designing uh an itinerary around the UK by rail as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, because that's right, you see, train travel in the UK is not cheap. So the last thing you want to be doing is having unnecessary journeys backwards and forwards across the country when I can streamline it and make it work in a more logical um circular route. Because most people you know like a circular journey, don't they, instead of backwards and forwards backtracking.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so that's all available, and you can check on the website as well for links to that. And we've had some, we've just had we've had some wonderful, wonderful times helping people plan their trip and go through itinerary consults, and of course, we do a video consult as well. So if you want to send us your itinerary, you've done the itinerary yourself, but you want us to you know you do a bit of a QA, you want to ask uh us to have a look at it and maybe tweak it, then we do that as a video consult. So you've got three different options if you want us to help you with your uh itinerary around the UK. Now, also, I will just I'm gonna actually go back to one of my favourite subjects when I'm walking in a particular city is to make sure that you have comfortable footwear because they mentioned that Liverpool is a walkable city, so I'm gonna take us back into Liverpool. Uh, make sure that you you are prepared for the day, you've got your comfortable shoes on, you plan your itinerary for the day, you make sure that you book your tickets for things in advance. For example, for the the magical mystery tour does get booked up.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so does the Anfield tour.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so you need to make sure that you book them in advance, don't leave it until the last minute. And I know this very popular, we we hear this quite often about I just want to go and kind of wing it and book things at the last minute. Sometimes you can book things kind of last minute, it depends on the season. Like if you're going in February, you'd probably get away with it. But when it comes to lots of different places and popular places, you can't wait until the last minute.

SPEAKER_01:

That's right, because yeah, Liverpool is a popular city with British people to visit as well.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, absolutely, because the history, culture, and obviously the Bills connection. Um, yeah, so I think that's just about everything that I can think of to share in a kind of quick podcast episode.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I was just going to add there. I mentioned you can catch a ferry from um Liverpool to Belfast.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

And also you can catch a ferry from Birkenhead to the Isle of Man.

SPEAKER_02:

Isle of Man. Well, I you know, we have had a few people in the Facebook group who have mentioned on the Isle of Man. Now, the last time I was at the Isle of Man, I was 11. So it's a few years ago, but it certainly would be somewhere I'd be interested to go back to.

SPEAKER_01:

Most certainly. I've never been.

SPEAKER_02:

No, you haven't been there at all. Uh and I know another talk about islands actually, because we have got a podcast all about the Isle of White that you did. We haven't got anything on the Isle of Man yet, and we've been requested actually um to do a podcast about visiting the Channel Islands, which I know you're really keen to do.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, the other end of the UK, yeah. I had an English channel, uh, Guernsey. I've visited many, many, many, many, many, many times, up to a certain age, and then I've not been for the last 20 years.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and I was in Jersey last year, so I think we will do. So um, we love it when we get requests. So do jump on a speak pipe. Leave us a message, leave us a question, say there's something in particular you'd love to hear about in the podcast, and uh, you never know, next year, 2026, you could hear your name mentioned. You could also hear the episode that you requested.

SPEAKER_01:

Most definitely, yes.

SPEAKER_02:

So, as always, you can find links to the different things that we talked about in the show notes, which will be at uktravelplanner.com forward slash episode 178. It's nearly Christmas, which is unbelievable. Can't believe it, nearly end of another year. So we got we have got another few episodes left for this year. We've got our Christmas message, which we always do every year from ourselves and our and our partners, and then we just have a wrap-up of 2025 at the very end of the year, the end of this month. Um, and then we're heading 2026. So I say if there's anything in particular on here at the podcast 2026, let us know. But I guess that just leaves us to say for this week, Doug. Happy UK travel planning! Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of the UK Travel Planning Podcast. As always, show notes can be found at uktravelplanning.com. If you've enjoyed the show, why not leave us feedback via text or a review on your favourite podcast app? We love to hear from you, and you never know, you may receive a shout out in a future episode. But as always, that just leaves me to say until next week, happy UK travel planning.